Psalm Meditation 875
Fourth Sunday in Lent
March 26, 2017

Psalm 135
1 Praise the LORD! Praise the name of the LORD; give praise, O servants of the LORD,
2 you that stand in the house of the LORD, in the courts of the house of our God.
3 Praise the LORD, for the LORD is good; sing to his name, for he is gracious.
4 For the LORD has chosen Jacob for himself, Israel as his own possession.
5 For I know that the LORD is great; our Lord is above all gods.
6 Whatever the LORD pleases he does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps.
7 He it is who makes the clouds rise at the end of the earth; he makes lightnings for the rain and brings out the wind from his storehouses.
8 He it was who struck down the firstborn of Egypt, both human beings and animals;
9 he sent signs and wonders into your midst, O Egypt, against Pharaoh and all his servants.
10 He struck down many nations and killed mighty kings—
11 Sihon, king of the Amorites, and Og, king of Bashan, and all the kingdoms of Canaan—
12 and gave their land as a heritage, a heritage to his people Israel.
13 Your name, O LORD, endures forever, your renown, O LORD, throughout all ages.
14 For the LORD will vindicate his people, and have compassion on his servants.
15 The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the work of human hands.
16 They have mouths, but they do not speak; they have eyes, but they do not see;
17 they have ears, but they do not hear, and there is no breath in their mouths.
18 Those who make them and all who trust them shall become like them.
19 O house of Israel, bless the LORD! O house of Aaron, bless the LORD!
20 O house of Levi, bless the LORD! You that fear the LORD, bless the LORD!
21 Blessed be the LORD from Zion, he who resides in Jerusalem. Praise the LORD!
(NRSV)

In the time this psalm was written it was normal for the supreme ruler of a people to hold unquestioned authority over them. Rulers were able to do as they pleased with all the people, places, and things in their realm. The ability to wield unchecked power and authority is no what set God apart from all the human rulers of whom the psalmist was aware. What set God apart was the scope of the authority. “Whatever the LORD pleases he does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps.” While human rulers held sway over as many people, places, and things as they possibly could, God had power and authority over all the parts of earth and beyond.

According to the psalmist, God uses that power and authority to help out a narrowing set of people, depending on the circumstances. In terms of natural phenomena, like weather, God sends wind and rain over all the earth. When it comes to people, God is partial to Jacob/Israel. For the psalmist, God will protect ‘us’ from Pharaoh, Sihon, Og and all the rulers of Canaan, just to name a few. Because we can’t imagine it any other way, we see God as having favorites. Amazingly enough, it just so happens that God’s very most favorite is ’us.’

I don’t know of and can’t imagine a culture that does not see itself as the favorite of God. And that, of course, makes ’us’ special in the eyes of God. The difficulty we run into is that we tend to stop with the part about being special and set apart and forget that in most of Scripture we are set apart for service more than anything else. We are the bearers of God’s love and favor so that we can be the conduit for that love and favor to all people, places, and things.

March 20, 2017
LCM